The Full Monty... Film Folklore

The “Full Monty” is an incredible film story. It's now film folklore.

The flick had a budget of $3.5M. However, shooting was stopped. Everyone was sent home. They ran out of money. It was over.

Mark Addy was second lead in the film. He and I met on "Down to Earth." We were chatting in his trailer on set one day when he told me the behind-the-scenes " Full Monty" story.

After the set closed, the Director, Peter Cattaneo and the Editors, David Freeman and Nick Moore, worked on their own time editing the film they had. They concluded they had enough but lacked an ending. It meant everyone needed to return to set without pay to shoot the final scene. The actors were owed large sums of money. Nonetheless, they eventually agreed to a striptease dressed as Policemen in front of 50-plus women extras. However, they agreed to one and only one take.

The story was based on… ” Gaz (Robert Carlyle) spots a crowd of women lined up outside a local club to see a Chippendales' striptease act and is inspired to form his own striptease group using local men hoping to make enough money to pay off his child support obligations."

The film crew found a local, unheated "man's club.” They posted posters inviting women from the local area to their striptease. The women sneaked in booze to help add some drama. Soon, the six actors were teasing the crowd as they stripped down, dancing and shaking to "Tom Jone's" version of "You Can Leave Your Hat On.” Finally, everything was completed except for the final scene. It required the men to enter from off stage naked except for a Policemen's cap they held, which covered their junk! The women were screaming wildly.

The camera was set up behind the men. They flashed their naked, shaking butts to the film audience and also captured the faces of a feisty crowd of women too. Suddenly, six Policemen’s caps soared through the air. The women, shocked, became hysterical with six fully naked male strippers in an authentic Full Monty finish.

The camera freezes frame to capture a remarkably hilarious and unique original movie scene. Ultimately, “Full Monty” won the 1998 Oscar for Best Picture, plus more! It is simply film magic!